Utah Adventure - The Town of Logan

The town where we are living right now is called Logan. Its a town of about 50,000 people. It has all the things that towns like this tend to have in the US a big Wal-mart (2 in fact), several big box stores like Home Depot, Kohl's, etc.

There are also a lot of churches for such a small place, actually probably more than we even know since Mormons are organized into 'wards', i.e. groupings of adherents to the faith based on where they live. Every 300 adherents constitutes 1 ward. I've been told there are more than 50 wards that are just composed of college students at Utah State University! University life here in general I think is wildly different than what I went through at Wheaton. A large percent of the students are Mormon, and married! About 70% of the students are married! Many with kids, some of whom bring kids with them to class. Its really a different type of study environment than the party, party time I experienced at uni. Strict Mormons don't drink alcohol at all and don't drink caffeine either. Interestingly the grocery stores sell plenty of kinds of beer and coffee. Although the coffee is REALLY expensive compared to what we were used to in Copenhagen.

Aside from box stores and churches Logan retains a bit of its old west feel. The streets are REALLY broad. Main Street is 5 lanes wide, 2 lanes each way and a middle turning lane that can be used in either direction. Apparently these wide roads are not just a modern fixture, they were this wide from the beginning so that there was enough space for a horse-drawn wagon to make a full turn. In the center part of town the building really have that Old West feel, something about the high and decorated fronts to the buildings as you can see in these pics





















Also near the center of town is one of the 3 bars in town. Yep, 50,000 people and from what I can gather only 3 bars! I think there are more than 3 bars within 2 blocks of our apartment in Copenhagen! What a difference! One of the 3 bars, also called 'Social Clubs' is this classy looking place between our house and Main Street.


















We thought of going to check out the scene there one night, but the combination of a sign warning that non-members had to pay 1 dollar per beer more and then also the fact there were only 3 old guys in baseball caps nursing their beers at the bar caused us to just go home instead. Bars here (at least in Logan) also I think only sell beer, perhaps wine too, but no hard alcohol.

Logan, like other Mormon towns, is easy to get around because it is set up on a kind of coordinate system. Main Street is the center road running North-South, and Center Street is the center road running East-West. The next road up from Main St then is 100 North, or the other way 100 South, like wise with Center Street the roads on either side are 100 East or 100 West. So addresses have a coordinate, for example our place is located at 155 North, 200 East. In that way getting around is quite convenient once you get the hang of it.

Right at the intersection of Main Street and Center Street is the Logan Tabernacle. This building also holds church services, like the Temple, but it also holds other events, concerts, church plays etc. All Mormons can go in, and non-Mormons too if they want to attend the concerts or whatever.



















This pic of the nativity scene during the holiday requires some explanation. See the baby Jesus in the middle? We were told that this doll is actually hooked up to a security alarm that goes off at the Logan police station if it is moved or touched! Why? Well apparently there have been many cases of vandalism of this baby Jesus, either being stolen, or get this, switched out and replaced with a black baby Jesus! I may be wrong, but I think I read that it was not until the 1970s or so that you could be a black Mormon...